摘 要

《远大前程》，一部主要描述皮普从 7 岁开始的三个人生阶段的小说，是英国著名小说家查尔斯·狄更斯的一部杰作。本文从简要介绍该小说作家，小说情节以及本文的写作目的入手，进一步从社会环境、家庭、社会交际和教育这四个主要方面详细分析了造成小说主人公皮普性格变化的原因，从而得出结论：造成皮普性格变化并不是单一原因造成的，而是多重原因所导致的。希望本文对当代大学生树立正确的价值观和人生观具有一定的启发和参考意义。

关键词： 皮普；性格变化；原因；人生观和价值观

Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 3
   1. Social Interaction Factors 3
      1. Miss Estella’s Influence on Pip 3
      2. Miss Havisham’s Influence on Pip 4
      3. Beatty’s Influence on Pip 5
      4. Magwitch’s Influence on Pip 6
   2. Family Factors 7
      1. Pip’s Sister and Mr Pumblechook’s Influence on Pip 7
      2. Joe’s Influence on Pip 7
   3. Social Ideology and Entertainment Factors 8
      1. People’s Ideology at That Time 9
      2. People’s Entertainment at That Time 9
   4. Education Factor 9
3. Conclusion 11

Works Cited 7

Bibliography 8

A Study on the Factors that Affect the Changes in Pip’s Personality in Great Expectations

Introduction

As one of the most famous British writers in the 19th century, Charles Dickens is good at depicting the real life of British people. He always describes all-embracing society scenes through excellent artistic techniques and creates many unforgettable characters in his works. He lived and started writing in the early Victorian Age. Charles Dickens’ writing always keeps pace with the trend of times. He mainly discloses the hypocrisy, greed, cruelty of the upper class as well as bourgeoisie with realistic technique and shows with anger and deep sympathy the living condition of lower class, especially women, children and old people.

As one of his famous works, Great Expectation tells about a poor orphan Pip’s living experience and the development of his inner world. This novel describes the whole process in which Pip looks forward to great expectation at first, but finally his illusion is broken vividly. In this novel, there are several characters influencing Pip’s personality. Firstly, his brother-in-law Joe has influence on the future of Pip. Pip is an orphan raised by his elder sister and brother-in -law Joe in humble surroundings. There is an obvious contrast between Pip’s sister and Joe. His sister is very rude and unreasonable. Although Joe is just a blacksmith, he is kind and the only person who cares about Pip in the family. Joe intends to train Pip to become blacksmith. Pip has this thought as well. However, there are two big events making Pip’s fate and pursuit of life change. At first, Pip comes across an escaped criminal in the swamp. Then, he steals a file and some food for that criminal and saves his life. Then Pip comes to a turning point in his life because that criminal’s appearance brings Pip a great deal of money. The second turning point is visiting Miss Havisham, a local noble. Miss Havisham gives Pip a chance to get to know Miss Estella. Estella is Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter. Although Miss Havisham is

very rich and her house is spacious, the contact between Miss Estella and Pip changes Pip’s inner world . Thus, Miss Havisham and Estella also influence Pip’s character deeply. Estella often treats Pip very rudely and laughs at him. It breaks Pip’s heart and he doesn’t

want to become a blacksmith and isn’t satisfied with simple life any more. Now, his life goal is to become a gentleman and marry Estella. Finally, there is a mysterious person wanting to support Pip to go to London. Pip regards this mysterious person as Miss Havisham and he has a feeling that Miss Havisham wants to cultivate him on purpose and helps him to marry Estella successfully. When Pip arrives in London, he becomes an idler. Before long, he finds out that the real sponsor is not Miss Havisham but an escaped criminal Magwitch. Estella is the daughter of Magwitch and a murderer. Miss Havisham is just a ruthless avenger and the main purpose of inviting Pip to her house is just revenging on men. At this time, his sponsor Magwitch is under arrest and Estella also marries another person. His hope towards Great Expectation ruins thoroughly. After a series of events, Pip wakes up from the illusion and searches for his good moral character again. In this novel, Pip’s character changes completely. At the beginning, he is kind and compassionate. Then, he becomes vain and arrogant. Finally, his great expectation ruins and he becomes kind and mature again. Great Expectations is one of the best works of Charles Dickens. Many researchers and scholars have studied this novel from different perspectives. However, few of them have analyzed this novel from the perspective of the factors that affect the changes in Pip’s character, which inspires the author to analyze the novel from this new angle. The author will analyze Pip’s character change from four aspects.

Demonstration

• 1. Social Interaction factors
     1. Miss Estella’s Influence on Pip

When Pip first arrives at Paradiso Perduto, arrogant Estella looks down upon him However, Pip falls in love at first sight. After the first meeting with Estella, Pip’s inner world stirs up. When Pip stays at Paradiso Perduto for an afternoon, he determines to change Estella’s arrogant attitudes towards himself and makes Estella accept him. After several meetings, Pip wants to make himself a gentleman in order to get Estella’s love. Pip’s character begins to change because of this experience. He deviates from his nature and is ashamed of his surroundings.

“After that, when we went in to supper, the place and the meal would have a more homely look than ever, and I would feel more ashamed of home than ever, in my own ungracious breast.”( Dickens, 1073)

The fundamental reason for Pip’s character change is the effect of Estella. Pip becomes more and more greedy because of Estella. He believes money can make him a gentleman. Thus, his attitude towards money is crazy. He feels ashamed of his family and his job. He needs a right time to leave his family. It is because of Estella that Pip’s character changes a lot. Estella’s appearance is related to Pip’s character change.

• • 1. Miss Havisham’s Influence on Pip

Although Miss Havisham is a noble, she is still a tragic female character in the Great Expectation. She was an innocent girl longing for love, however, when she put all her love on Vompeyson, her tragic life began to lurk. Finally, Vompeyson betrayed Miss Havisham, who was defeated by the failure of her love life. She was driven mad and lost the center of gravity of her life.Everything in her eyes has lost their own meanings. In the

novel, we can easily see Miss Havisham’s character has a great change since her wedding.